Poison Revelations

Author: Uriel Falcon

Rating: M

Contains: Eventual CS, don't read if you don't like it. I don't need people describing how they hated it because of the couple. Thank you to all the reviewers, you're support is great! And a special thanks to MBInc, thanks for noting some discrepancies. I'll try to sort them out as time goes by. I don't own Suffering overdue, by Black label society. So, no lawsuits. Okay, H'okay.

VIOLENCE
NUDITY
SWEARING
COARSE LANGUAGE

Catherine stood stunned at the findings, blinking slowly to clear her mind of any anger that would jeopardize the case. She knelt down to the cabinets and bedding, finding blood on the edges and corners of almost everything in the room. As she bagged many pieces of evidence, she continued to think her own thoughts. How did Sara know to check the parent's room for abuse signs? And more precisely, how did she know what to look for? It can't be all investigator's intuition... Catherine's thoughts were interrupted as she spotted something on the bed. A hair, very small. She bagged it, and continued to search the bed, turning on the blue flashlight and putting on her orange glasses.

She gasped as she spotted the huge blotches of old blood, both on and underneath the bed covers. The walls were drenched with spatter, the room was almost all bright blue from the heavy amount of blood. Catherine began snapping pictures through a special lens, already almost sick to her very core. She swabbed the walls and the furniture, and bagged the whole set of bed sheets and covers, bringing them out to the Tahoe. When she came back in after talking to a few officers, she checked the living room. It was also covered with blood, high on the walls like it was sprayed there. Once again, she photographed, swabbed and bagged all of the evidence.

Catherine took the evidence back to the Tahoe once again, then went around to the window, deciding once again to take more pictures with the blue lighted camera. She swabbed more of the blood, now that she could see that it was in a definite climbing and dripping pattern. And she also spotted something inside of the blood. As she leaned closer, she smiled a little to herself. Some sort of trace fiber was embedded in the blood, along with a piece of glass.

"Looks like whoever climbed up this wall cut themselves... It's up to you, Greg, it's all up to you." Catherine mumbled to herself, bagging the evidence. She looked up, and spotted Sara leaning out the window almost to her knees, processing the outside of the window sill. Catherine had to confess, she was quite worried about Sara falling out of that window. On the other hand, however, she was glad for the view of her co-workers stomach. Of course, this was that bad hand that she wasn't quite sure of trusting, yet. Catherine laughed to herself, but made sure to burn the image of Sara's strong stomach into her mind.

"Sara, how are you doing up there?" Catherine called. Sara looked down for a split second, then pulled a print of the place she was working on.

"Good, I've got more prints, and some blood and glass. I'm almost ready to wrap things up here. Are we allowed to take the bed without a warrant, or has that changed?" Sara asked, bagging the print tape. Catherine nodded.

"Yeah, we can take anything we want, technically. Nothing has changed, my dear." OH CRAP! Catherine cussed herself out in her mind. You slipped up big time! Catherine waited for the repercussion, but soon realized that it seemed to have squirmed right past Sara. Thank god she's too into her work to notice... Catherine let out a big sigh, and walked back into the house, processing the actual crime scene of the parents. People are creative, but a cheese grater? That's just awkward... Catherine thought, taking more photos, like she had of the bodies in their original positions. She dusted for prints from the drawers, and lifted them all, while photographing and swabbing every possible surface in that kitchen. She checked the railing of the stairs, even the vases around the area.

A few minutes after she was done, Sara came downstairs, a huge bag of evidence under her arm.

"Alright, I'm done up there. We need to get the bed to the lab, in full tact. Want to give me a hand?" Sara asked, walking with Catherine back to the Tahoe.

"Are you sure that we alone can get that bed downstairs?" Catherine asked as they walked back up to the bedroom. Sara nodded.

"Yeah, it seems like a fairly light thing. It's all one piece with a few drawers and a cubby-hole directly in the center grain. I'll take the stairs first, you just have to balance it on me." Sara instructed. The bedding had already been bagged and removed, leaving just the frame. The mattress had been removed. After wrapping the bed in plastic to make sure no evidence was lost or contaminated, Sara grabbed on end, while Catherine had the other, and with a swift jerk, up came the bed off of the floor. Catherine made an 'oof' sound as she struggled with the grip on her side. Sara quickly adjusted so the blunt weight was on her, and led them out of the room, the bed at a vertical angle.

"Okay, now keep it steady, I'm hitting the steps..." Sara coached from her side, slowly going down the stairs. Catherine did her job, though struggled a few times when it seemed like it was going to go crashing down on Sara's head. Sara hit the bottom step, and then down onto the floor, propping the bed up on her elbows and chest.

"Great work, we're clear. Now just out the door and onto the trailer I called for..." Sara called out, the door opening when she pushed her back through. While they were loading the bed into the truck, Sara was thinking about what exactly had happened.

"Thanks guys, we'll meet you back at the lab soon." Catherine told the officers. They drove away in the trailer. Sara and Catherine loaded their kits into the Tahoe, and set off back to the lab. The drive was pretty much in silence, as both were thinking. Not of the same things, but that was beside the point. The point was, it was way too quiet for Sara to handle. She reached forward and adjusted the radio to her station, tapping away on the steering wheel to ' Suffering Overdue' by Black Label Society. Catherine recognized the song from somewhere, but she couldn't place where she remembered it from.

"There's something sick,
Inside these walls,
Your loss of mind has,
come and called,
Your dissolution view of

why,

You'll find no dignity upon

the day you die

In the end we find what's

true,
suffering overdue

You claimed this oath and

then you swore,

Beyond today, beyond

forever more,

Withdrawn inside these,
sickened walls,
Silence is broken and you,
can't break me no more

I tried to speak my mind,

but it fell don deaf ears

These scars I've held,

within so many years..." Sara didn't realize she was singing along until it was much too late to stop. She continued singing with the song, deciding for once just not to care if she was around somebody else. Hell, today was just one of those days. Meanwhile, Catherine was bobbing her head to the music, smiling out the window. Why doesn't she sing more often, she is very good... Where have I heard this song before? Catherine wondered to herself. As they pulled closer to the office, Sara spoke up.

"So, should we call it a day now, or work a little longer?" She asked. Catherine looked over to Sara.

"How about we... Process the bed, hand over the DNA evidence, the trace and the fingerprints, and then go?" Catherine replied, not wanting to spend too much overtime. Her true intentions were hidden, but she honestly wanted to spend time with Sara. Catherine had never really gotten to know her, after all these years. What was she like off the job? Who did she associate with? What did she like do to on her spare time, what was her favorite food, favorite colour or artist? Did she have any family, or did she leave them all behind in San Francisco? There were so many things that made the enigmatic Sara Sidle.

The two women got out of the car once Sara had it parked in the lot. After picking up all the evidence and dropping them at their corresponding locations, Catherine decided to go see what Sara was doing with the bed in the workshop. When she entered, all she saw were Sara's legs sticking out from under the cubby-hole.

"Sara... What are you doing?" She asked, kneeling down beside the bed. Sara scooted out, a swab in her hand.

"The victim was around 5'4, and with some bending was able to fit into this cubbyhole, near the back where the wall would have been. I found a small bit of blood on the ceiling of the inside of this bed. Our killer must have reached in to grab the victim, thinking she would be proud of them for what they did. When she screamed and kicked at them, they were too tall and knocked their head on the board here, leaving some DNA. By the look of the drag marks on the hardwood floor, they became enraged and pulled her out. That's when they shot her." Sara explained, standing up, bagging the evidence. "I'm pretty much done here. Off to autopsy we go." Sara explained, walking out of the workshop and dropping her findings off at DNA.

Once in the autopsy room, they could see the extent of what had happened. Doctor Robbins was shaking his head at the second female victim, the young friend.

"So, who are our victims?" Catherine asked, looking at the 4 bodies. Doctor Robbins sighed.

"Well, this girl's name is Suzi Vayne, 15 years old. Cause of death was the bullet that shot through her brain. She has lacerations almost everywhere, consistent with a serrated blade of some sort. She has spinal damage, a few fractures of the lower back. A broken wrist, cheekbone and foot, all from blunt force trauma. Stab wounds, scratches, this girl went through hell. No signs of sexual assault. The brutality of these injuries suggests that she fought back, and quite violently. I recovered skin and blood cells from her teeth, and the tops of her knuckles. I've sent it all to trace and DNA. This was one tough girl. Suzi had a very strong body for a 5'1 person. Her feet are all scratched up from running on what seems like glass and gravel." Doctor Robbins explained, pointing with the scalpel.

"Over here, we have the other girl, Dana Redden, 14 years old. Cause of death was the single bullet through her head. No other injuries exist. The only other consistency with Suzi is that both have old scars and fractures that had been caused only a few days before death. Some even ranged back years. These kids were heavily abused, it seems..." Catherine flinched. Just like Sara had predicted...

"Now this... This is a strange thing. The father, Bob Redden, age 42. Cause of death was the salad spoon piercing the heart and causing him to bleed out. The lacerations and abrasions all over his body were caused by the cheese grater found on the scene. The mutilation is bad, he was definitely alive when he was grated and stabbed. Blunt force trauma cracked a key vertebrae in his spine. He couldn't move, so he could only feel the pain."

"Andrea Redden, age 40. Cause of death was the decapitation. Bruises on the wrists and ankles, suggesting some sort of binding. Her vocal chords were not in tact before death, so she was slashed first. As for the turkey baster, I have no idea what that signifies. The person who did this was terribly sick. You ladies should be careful." Sara nodded, and together with Catherine prepared to leave.

"Oh, there's one more thing I have to tell you. The records say that her name is Suzi Vayne, but she's actually adopted. She's a Redden, too. I figure that might be useful." Catherine blinked at this information. Did Suzi go back to save her sister from her parents? She asked herself as they walked back into the break room, white coats already discarded and in the wash. Sara slumped down on the couch, rubbing her eyes.

"What a case..." She mumbled, staring at the coffee table. Catherine sighed.

"Yeah... The more we seem to find out, the more it complicates things. We should probably get going, Lindsey will be home soon... Could I bug you for-"

"Of course, I'm fixing your car, remember?" Sara laughed out, cutting Catherine off. Catherine blinked, and laughed at herself for almost forgetting.

"Let's get going, so we can have coffee."

Feedback is always nice...